A/N: I wrote a note at the beginning of this story saying it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and I meant it. I clearly don't expect everyone to like this story as a couple of you haven't and I certainly respect your right not to. I always have. Just as I respect my right to write this tale the way it came to me from start to finish. Just because I feel like sharing with anyone who'd care to read, this is the perspective I'm writing from.
In my opinion, Jane isn't above using any devious trick he can to get what he wants. On the other hand, Lisbon is a grown woman fully capable of handling Jane as she's proven over and over again. What she isn't is a teenager whose boyfriend is saying, "If you don't sleep with me, I'm breaking up with you." That wouldn't have flown with a teenaged Lisbon. It certainly isn't flying now.
Being the strong, adult woman that she is, she'd tell that boyfriend to take a long leap off a short pier. Exactly what she'd do with Jane if she didn't really want to accept his proposition.
From my perspective as well, Lisbon is being her usual indecisive self where it comes to committing fully to a relationship. She wants to have her cake and eat it too. She just hadn't quite figured out how to do that without getting all tangled up with Jane again. The sad part is she clearly knows she has someone in her life that loves her. Someone she clearly loves.
That person is Jane and he's looking at her saying, "I'm finally ready to have a real life and I'm ready to have that life with you. You know how I feel about you and I know how you feel about me. It's time for you to step up to the plate and take that chance with me. Or, it's time for you to admit you can't and set me free. Let me get over you. Let me find happiness again. Let me have a family again. Don't let me keep hoping you'll come around."
I don't think he's being a cad for feeling that way. I honestly believe a year or two after Red John was caught/killed – whatever – that he would start craving a normal life. That he would want what he'd lost again. I certainly hope so. I'd also hope he'd want it with Lisbon because she's the one woman who clearly accepts/loves him unconditionally warts and all as Angela did. That's pretty darned hard to find.
Lisbon is an adult. If she doesn't want the life he's suggesting, she can say no. Jane's given her two months to make up her mind without even bringing it up again. In my opinion, she isn't being forced into anything. Jane even underscores that by saying, "Let's date and let things happen naturally. There's no rush now that we've agreed to do this thing. It happens when it happens and you're (Lisbon) in control of it."
This story isn't what I usually write any more than the Volker (Settling the Score) story was. However, I do write other fiction and they aren't tame and predictable like my fanfiction so sometimes my fanfic shouldn't be like my fanfic either. This story is one of those. Trust me, when I write mysteries and historicals, I deal with everything from perversions to pedofiles to rape, miscarriage, arranged marriages to plenty of I'll do this if you'll do that's. A lot of these events are based on things that really happened so I'm not unwilling to go where a story wants to go. It's who I am as a writer.
Sometimes I like to tell you where I'm coming from because it helps me clarify exactly how I want to write things in my mind. I like to have an occassional "This is how I see it moment." if you want to know. That doesn't mean you have to agree with me! Life and the story will still go on for the readers who continue to enjoy what I write. :) ~Calla